Originally aired in Korea on 16 April 2011. Supposedly aired later on KBS World.
The interview was recorded 10 days earlier (on April 6th) in Hongdae.

It already has English subtitles, so enjoy! 🙂

Btw Kim Tae Won is in Australia at the moment for Men’s Qualification recording. If you happen to be in Australia and run into someone who looks like him, it could as well be him! lol Have great weekends! 🙂

Boohwal had just release their latest digital single today, 29 March 2011. Despite fans’ anticipation, Boohwal came back in their original formation, this time for another digital single~^^ This new single, as you suspected, was composed and written by Kim Tae Won.

I happen to know that Boohwal just finished shooting a music video last week. I suppose the music video is still on editing process at the moment, and I will sure upload it here as soon as I could. I hope no fans upload this song illegally on youtube yet, and patiently wait for the original MV. International fans, please be patient until the song comes out through legal channels in your respective countries~ 🙂

For the last few weeks, I’ve been listening only Boohwal’s 5th album~ there’s a color that I had not find in any other Boohwal albums.

First, the 5th album has the strongest rock flavor to it, probably the only other album that’s comparably strong is the second album released in 1986.

Second, this 5th album, which was released in 1997 when the economic crisis hit Asia the biggest for the first time, also reflect the social condition at the moment of its release. This particular song, 21C 불경기, literally means “Recession in the 21st Century”. This is so much different from the rest of Kim Tae Won’s songs that reflect personal experiences.

And I think it goes without explanation that Boohwal 5th album was produced by a totally different formation: Kim Tae-Won on guitar, Jeong Dong-Cheol on drum, Jeong Jun-Gyo on bass, and Park Wan-Gyu on the microphone. This 5th album was produced by a different production house and thus they’re now out of the market, but I heard that Boohwal Entertainment has recently obtained the copyright back, so hopefully we’ll be able to find it back in the market soon.

The video below is a live performance where they sung 3 songs from the fifth album: 불의 발견 I (Discovery of Fire I), 21C 불경기 (21st Century Recession), and 마술사 (Magician), followed with “Open Arms” by Journey. I think the sound is a bit off on this video though, but the original CD sounds way better. 21 C 불경기 is also one of the “must” songs that Boohwal usually plays in live concerts that I’ve been to up to now.

이것저것 가릴 것 없이 세셍에 돈이 최고라고 (no matter what, they say money is the best in the world)
술잔을 기울여 대는 그런 장사가 어떠냐고 (how about pouring beer for business?)
당장엔 도움도 안될 고리타분한 책보다는 (compared to an old-fashioned book that won’t be of any quick help)
하소연할 진할 술잔이 요샌 더 필요한 거겠지 (a drinking glass where one can complain to is more needed at this time)

*어느길로 가야하나 (which way should I take)
무얼해서 돈을 버나 (what should I do to earn money)
세상경험이 더 많은 저분 말대로 할까 (shall I do as that man with more life experience said)

**어느길로 가야하나 (which way should I take)
무얼해서 돈을 버나 (what should I do to earn money)
그 누구처럼 돈을 벌어 (earning money like that someone)
정승처럼 쓰면 되지 (so I can spend money like a minister)

어떻게 살아가는게 현명하다는 생각인지 (which way of living is a wise?)
수많은 저 얘기들이 내 위로 떠다니는 걸 (those many stories are drifting to comfort me?)

Boohwal is a legendary rock band originating from South Korea. Since 1986, they’ve been through tremendous changes in members, in style; they’ve passed through so many challenges that only keep them going and become stronger and better every each day. Click here to check out [ALL MUSIC VIDEOS] of Boohwal over the years.

A lot of foreign fans don’t know how to get Boohwal’s CDs abroad, so please go to the red button on the right side to check out the sites where you can get their CDs abroad – please note that I DO NOT provide links for free downloads.

The “Rock Rock Rock” miniseries that was aired recently, taking the theme of Kim Tae-Won’s life story have drawn a lot of attention to Boohwal both from within Korea and internationally. Click on the correlating [Rock Rock Rock] button on the left to find the details about this drama.

You can find the list of most recent posts in this site on the left-hand side and categories organized below.
Top posts and comments could be found on your right-hand side, as well as monthly archive from March 2010-2011.

*On-record, this is post number 178 on https://boohwal.wordpress.com and right to this point of one-year anniversary, the blog has been visited over 46,200 times. Thank you for all of your never ending interest in Boohwal.* -겁많은사자, 18 March 2011-

남자의 자격, literally translated “Men’s Qualification”,is an entertainment program on KBS 2 TV in Korea started on air since March 2009. It’s more than extremely late of me to only write an article on this program now when it’s reaching a two-years anniversary. At first, as much as I was and still am an avid viewer, I didn’t find it as relevant for it only includes Kim Tae-Won (among other Boohwal members) in it, as well as it has practically nothing to do with music – let alone Boohwal’s music. But really, what is Boohwal without Kim Tae-Won? And the rebirth of Boohwal in the latter 2009 was partly (if not mostly) thanks to Kim Tae-Won’s apperance in this entertainment program. Kim Tae-Won said and I recall, that having done music for 23 years.. nobody ever recognized him. Having started in this program, suddenly people started taking interest in him, as well as his music, that is to say, Boohwal. Having helped Boohwal to rebirth, the program once again presented another miracle, helping Kim Tae Won to rebirth himself.

Better late than never, thus I’m posting this article as a token of my appreciation to “Men’s Qualification”.

The program started off with 7 members, but Kim Sung-Min (김성민) had to drop out from the program on December 2010, leaving only 6 men in the team: 이경규 (Lee Kyung-Kyu), 김국진 (Kim Kuk-Jin), 김태원 (Kim Tae-Won), 이윤석 (Lee Yun-Seok), 이정진 (Lee Jung-Jin), and 유형빈 (Yoo Hyung-Bin).

Among the first episodes of Men’s Qualification that I watched was [남자, 그리고 두번 결혼하기] “Men, and second wedding.” No, it’s not suggesting men to have more than one wife, but to re-plant the seeds of romance into marriage by having another wedding with the same couple. Out of the original 7 members of the program, 3 were married and 1 divorced, among them Kim Tae-Won and Lee Kyung-Gyu were married the longest. In the end, Kim Tae Won ended up to be the one to make a second proposal to his wife.

It was really romantic. He called her, asking if she were reborn, would she marry him once again (in another life), and she said of course she would, without pause. It was just lovely. He then invited her to come to the shooting area which was the area of residence of Korea’s renown novelist Lee Wae-Soo (이외수). He proposed to her for a second wedding in the way that guy in (the movie) “Love Actually” proposed to his bestfriend’s wife (phew.. that’s not the best way of putting it, but it was romantic more despite morally wrong). Niweis, the proposal was received well, and they held the second wedding that very same day. The picture below was taken after the wedding. Lee Wae-Soo acted as the officiator of the wedding~ ^^

(Left to Right) 유형빈, 김국진, 김태원, 이외수, 이현주, 이정진, 이경규, 이윤석**It has passed 24 years since Kim Tae-Won and Lee Hyun-Joo first met, and they were married after 9 years of dating. They have a daughter and a son together.

One thing that I got from this episode is that, if I were to get married, I want to have a marriage filled with love as the marriage of these two. It’s obvious she loves him endlessly and he loves her equally as much. They have a lot of respect and love for each other, and it’s not only seen from the words they’re saying to each other, one can see it from as small a thing as their body gestures~ it simply is just lovely.

Among other first episodes of Men’s Qualification was [남자, 그리고 친구 집 알기] “Men, and Knowing my Friend’s House.” They had this project when the TV show had only started for a while, when most people in Korea had practically no idea who Kim Tae-Won was – that’s how un-famous Boohwal was, despite its history. So they visited Kim Tae-Won’s house, and then his parents’ house, and Boohwal’s rehearsal studio.

Before this episode of Men’s Qualification, a lot of Korean TV viewers thought he was a comedian – you can’t deny he’s a funny guy can you ^^ The picture on the top-left says “Do you know Kim Tae-Won”? The picture on top-right shows a picture of young Kim Tae-Won (far-right) on his mother’s lap. The picture was taken before his two younger sisters were born, I assume – judging he was probably only 1 or 2 years-old at most at the time. The pictures below were taken in Boohwal’s rehearsal studio, introducing the Guitarist Kim Tae-Won, Boohwal leader Kim Tae-Won.

The next episode that caught a lot of public attention was the lecture they held in Kyunghee University, Seoul. Each member of the team presented a lecture to university students on how they should spend their youth. On this session the lecture Kim Kuk Jin was especially remarkable to a lot of viewers.

On my account, [남자, 그리고 아마추어 밴드] “Men, and Amateur Band” episode was special. In this episode, Men’s Qualification team worked together to make an amateur band. Kim Tae-Won acted as their trainer, since he’s a pro. Instead, he wrote a song just for this amateur band, titled “사랑해서 사랑해서” (Because I Love You). It went kind of rough in the beginning, I myself was in their first public performance – 21 March 2010, the final day of Boohwal’s Wonderful Days Vol.1 Concert – and (I’m sorry, but) they were not pleasant to hear.. But they worked on it, and they got better. They entered an amateur band competition and won the Bronze Prize, and then they went into recording and the song hit the first place in all Korea’s music chart. Boohwal then follow making Boohwal’s version of the song, which was also the first digital single Boohwal had ever released.

This is just to show view example how much this program has touched and somewhat changed Kim Tae-Won’s life.

Following the success of this amateur band, the program continued with its biggest success yet, [남자,그리고 하모니] “Men, and Harmony”. The idea was to get a group of 7 men (who could barely carry a tune) take part in a choir competition. To make a choir, they had to have at least 30 members, so they held an audition (after the 7 members themselves was auditioned by Music Producer Colleen Park-박칼린) to pick the rest 23. In this audition episode, you can find the rest of Boohwal’s 3 members participating. Seo Jae-Hyuck (서재혁) ended up to be the only one who passed into the choir, taking bass part. Below is the video of the choir taking part in the fore-mentioned competition. You can find Kim Tae Won in the middle of the formation, right at the center, wearing sunglasses as usual~

A wrap to close the year 2010, Men’s Qualification held a [2010 송년회] Year-End Party, inviting the people whose took part in the program during the whole year, including Boohwal members and members of the choir, among other. They had some small singing competition in the end, in which Boohwal’s vocalist Jeong Dong Ha (정동하) participated. He sung “생각이나” (Thought) which gained huge popularity in 2009 – among other thanks to Men’s Qualification itself for inserting the song as background to many scenes. The song, sung by its original singer, drew quiet a few men into tears, including the song’s composer himself.

In the year 2011, Men’s Qualification has a view agendas to accomplish. Among other, learning tap dance and going backpacking. The backpacking trip was planned to be held in May this year, but let’s see if they’re gonna keep the schedule given the recent development.

A big surprise, yet another turning point in Kim Tae-Won’s life, came up yet again thanks to this program. As part of public education (I suppose), they held a series of episodes about cancer. They had all the remaining 6 members of the team went through cancer check and all, including lung cancer, stomach cancer, and others. And as it turned out, a small lump of tumor was found in Kim Tae-Won’s stomach. It was latter identified to be the earliest stage of stomach cancer. Men’s Qualification showed the whole process from when the verdict was told to Kim Tae-Won, the surgery, and after. And what can I say, I gain even more respect to this man. He’s fearless, he was calm, he was even reassuring the people around him that he’s fine. He’s a strong man and not one thing can change that.

The Men’s Qualification team played the song [For My Father] 희망에게 “To Hope” in the background when Kim Tae-Won heard the news, just as I expected, coz this song also immediately came to mind when I heard about it myself.

Thanks to Men’s Qualification, Kim Tae Won took the cancer check which he might have never done voluntarily, and thanks to it, they found the cancer cells before it could grow nor spread. Thanks to it, he’s had his second.. no, fourth chance to be reborn once again.. 부활..

Just as an end note, here’s among Boohwal songs that’s been inserted during Men’s Qualification (in random order):

Star’s Audition [The Great Birth], I’ve reviewed it once when the program first started, but I wasn’t too excited about it – to be honest. There are just simply toooo many programs with the same pretext.. but along the line I kinda started to follow the program, and root for some of the participants. Among other reason, well.. I’m not sure coz I didn’t follow from the beginning, but so far, I like the fact that they actually pick top 20 to train, instead of simply criticizing this and that and act god.. well, it’s possible the next stage is to pick one final survivor.. but anyhow, so far I like how it goes.

I’ve actually finished this post sometime last week (actually I’ve written all posts to be posted up to the middle of March) before the news that Tae-Won Oppa was diagnosed with gastric cancer. Now is all the more reason to post this particular post now, since we’ll be monitoring how he’s doing through this program. Again, I’d like to wish him well and recover 100%~ 🙂 사랑합니다..

As I said, I did a(n extremely) simple review before, but I’ll share a bit more this time. (share, not dig ^^ – )

Kim Yun-A (김윤아), born in 1974, is the vocalist of the band “Jaurim” (자우림) that debut in 1997. She’s also produced 3 single albums of her own. Among the renown song of Jaurim are Hahaha Song (하하하 쏭) and Magic Carpet Ride.

Kim Tae-Won (김태원), Boohwal’s leader and guitarist. You wouldn’t expect more explanation, would you 🙂 He writes most of Boohwal songs (by most I mean over 90%) and he’s brought Boohwal for 26 years and counting. A lot of people in Korea are likely to pick these three songs among his best masterpiece:회상 III (Reminiscence III), 사랑할수록 (The More I Love), andNever Ending Story.

Shin Seung-Hun (신승훈), without doubt one of Korea’s best ballad singer. I’ve known him long, much longer than I’ve known Boohwal. I love his voice, he writes .. I think all of his songs. He was born in 1968, and debut in 1991 with the song 미소속에 비친 그대 (Your smile in my memory). His biggest hit was 보이지 않은 사랑 (Invisible Love) released in the second album released one year later. Most of you would probably recognized him from the song “I Believe” which was the OST of the movie “My Sassy Girl” released in 2001.

Kim Tae-Won was the first among the 5 mentors who picked his mentees, and they are as follows:

(I mentioned I saw them on the Valentine concert, did I? Three of them did come, except for 양정모. But to my surprise, all 4 of them apparently appeared on stage on Boohwal’s Jeonju concert on Feb 19th (a week after the val concert).)

How good are these guys? You can tell for your selves~ ^^

Lee Tae-Kwon (이태권), 20 years old, from Incheon. The video below is from the second round of audition, where he sung “Love” (사랑) by Boohwal and “Staying Alive.” He was hand-picked by three mentors: Kim Tae-Won, Sin Seung-Hoon, and Lee Eun-Mi, and he chose Kim Tae-Won~ ^-^

Yang Jeong-Mo (양정모), 27 years old, from Seoul. He lost 15 kgs from the first round to the third round of audition. He sung “Beautiful Truth” (아름다운 사실) by Boohwal in the first round of audition and received high compliments by all mentors present. He’s been rooting for Kim Tae-Won from day 1 to be his mentor~ ^^

Paek Chung-Gang (백청강), Chinese-Korean. He sung Kim Kyung-Ho (김경호)’s song “사랑 그 시린 아픔으로” and “보고싶다” by Kim Beom-Soo (김범수) in the first round of audition, which I personally think was perfect, but Kim Tae-Won thinks he was imitating Kim Kyung-Ho and told him to find his own style, while Lee Eun Mi keeps noting he shouldn’t sing through the nose coz it results in unclear pronunciation. He sung Boohwal’s Never Ending Story in the second round of audition (held in Korea), and was teamed with Yang Jung-Mo in the third (final) round, which led both of them hand-picked by Kim Tae-Won as mentee.

Now, Son Jin-Young (송진영). A question mark, and not only for me, I believe. He fell in each round of audition, but Kim Tae-Won kept giving him second chances and called him back. The video below is from the final round audition, where he teamed up with Lee Jin-Sun (이진선) who was latter picked by Lee Eun-Mi. Kim Tae-Won jokingly said he probably keeps reincarnating Son again and again for his karma ^^; but in the final round, he told him that he’ll tell Son the reason he picked him, one day, when he almost reaches his limit.

Below are all of the 5 mentors and each 4 mentees they hand-picked. Wish them all luck. Despite how far they’ve got til now, despite how much further they’d go, it ‘ll be difficult to survive in Korean music industry where look is everything. I’m personally rooting for Lee Tae-Kwon, and the little girl Kim Jeong-In, and also Yang Jung-Mo and Paek Cheong-Gang, and.. Hwang Jin-Hwan and Kim Han-Jun.. I wish they would go far, really far. From the current 20 finalists, each mentor will choose 2 to go into the top-10 round.

Keep watching the show, coz Boohwal members will show in sessions where Kim Tae-Won will mentor his four mentees. And I’m crossing my fingers that bits from the Jeonju concert might show in this week’s episode. A lot of fans who attended said it was amazing and magical, even before they knew Kim Tae-Won had undergone a surgery only 4 days before the concert. All the more reason to monitor The Great Birth this week, isn’t it~ Music director Colleen Park will also be assisting Kim Tae Won as shown in last week’s preview. Actually, rumor has it that tomorrow’s Star’s Audition will be exclusively on Kim Tae-Won’s mentoring session~ but let’s see! Stay tune @ 10 pm on MBC, Friday night! ^ㅇ^